Moving Along in Life: The RV Phase

I don’t summon when I first fantasized about traveling around the country in a motor home, wild and free, I imagined, like a wandering saddle plough in the Old West. But it was probably during high school in the 1960’s. I wanted to buy a used school bus, fix it up (PAINT!) use it as a place to live at college. I figured I could take it camping on the weekends and then take erase-country trips during the summer months. Ha Ha. Reality check, 18-year-old. Every thing takes Wampum! So I joined the Navy.

Forward about 43 years. My wife and I decided to purchase a used motor about to see if we would enjoy the “RV lifestyle.” Crawling around inside a tent had become just a bit too confining for a 60-year-old with back and knee problems. We got a cute good deal on a 1991 Fleetwood Flair 25Y.

The 17-year-old motor home proved to be reasonably cramped and confining. Why would we not expect that? Two people can barely move past each other. There are all sorts of overhangs and sharp corners to despatch my head. I hope I have found them all.

Cooking in the motor home makes the entire place smell like chow. For hours. And it heats up the entire place too. Summer camping in 95 degree temperatures is unbearable without air conditioning. We ended up cooking front on a campstove half the time. And we set up a tent so we could sit outside in the shade without BUGS! So here we are, a tent and a campstove, sitting alongside a big ol’ motorhome.

We tried dry camping, which means there is no electrical repair, water service, sewer service, or cable tv hookups. What an eye-opener! Unless we run the generator we have no air conditioning. Batteries can run down and cause to be you stranded. When the vehicle is 17 years old, refrigerators don’t always work well, nor do generators. Holding tanks fill up WAY too wildly, too.